Psych/Space/Stoner Rockers ZOAHR returned in a big way with their epic sounding new album MOSAIC which was released in January 2025. Packed full of epic Space Rock passages and Doomed Out Stoner Rock melodies which can be quite surreal and wonderfully progressive at the same time. The record allows ZOAHR the perfect opportunity to re-invent themselves in so many different ways compared to their previous albums.
I caught up with ZOAHR to discuss the making of the album. Here's what we discussed with this great interview.
Hi Steve, first of all thank you for taking the time to make this interview with us. Now as i'm typing the answers our new album is finally out and a lot of stressful time behind me, but as i`m doing almost everything in the band fully DIY there is always some stuff to.
For folks not in the know can you give a brief history of how the band came together and where it is today?
The idea for the band and the songwriting started early 2017 when I was injured and couldn't walk for a longer time. I made a recording setup in my bedroom and started writing music for a new musical project. My main band back then COLARIS (Instrumental Post-Rock/Psychedelic) was slowly fizzling out and I wanted to gravitate more into stoner stuff. I asked Philipp in summer 2017 if he was down to do some jams to further evolve my ideas and so we ended up jamming a lot.
We had a different bass player for a couple of rehearsals, but he didn't had the time for a second band so i asked Thorsten which i know for a long time to join the sessions. From that point we evolved pretty fast and almost 8. years and three records later we are still here in the same constellation.
How did you describe your own sound?
In the beginning we sounded way more Stoner & Heavypsych without vocals but as I couldn't find a singer i try`do it myself and I guess just stuck with it. I don't consider myself a singer though. After the first couple of songs I really wanted to gravitate more towards a Blues and 70's Psychedelic, Proggy Heavyrock kind of direction, but we are still evolving and bringing new ingredients to our sound with each album. But to get back to your question i think our sound is guitar driven, groovy & playful with energetic drums and basslines. Shure it could be more beefy but we are a three piece. ;-) We have air and ambience and a lot of mood to our songs. Nothing fancy or extravagant but with a lot of heart.
Congrats on your excellent new album Mosaic. Great album and very psychedelic experience. What can people expect to hear from this album?
Thank you it was a lot of work, so much appreciated and glad you like it. I would say it's way harder and more rocking then Apraxia which at least for me has that „dark and down in a whole COVID feel to it“. You can hear that we really wanted to play on Mosaic. Lyric Wise it`s again pretty dark, I reflect a lot on the state of the world, my small world and what's going on around me and my past life. But as i`m not an English native speaker and my first language is German it's a struggle sometimes to find the right words to convey my thoughts and feelings. So please don't be too harsh on my bad English. I wouldn't necessarily call it more psychedelic than Apraxia, for me it has more of a rocking feel than our previous records.
This is a quite different record compared to your previous albums. Was that your plan to create something different to your previous albums?
I don't want to write the same album twice and get stuck in a musical style where there is no room for evolution. I guess we have found our sound in terms of playing style and the mostly twangy guitar sounds. Vocal Wise on the first record I used to sing a lot more with rasp and grit, but it was hard on my voice and I didn't want to destroy my vocal chords. Now I try to mix it up a bit and sing with a more cleaner voice so the vocals are more melodic now and less screamed. Other than that we just tried to get tighter and be more „locked in“ to the groove.
Where did the name for the album come from and what does this mean to the band?
I feel like life is a big puzzle or mosaic and it has so many aspects to it. As you get older you get a different view on things in life and obviously you change a lot through the growing process. Most of the lyrics on the album are about different tragic individuals or characters and happenings in their life (mine included). The fortune teller on the cover and the cards resemble all the hopes and dreams of these individuals. I mean in some way everybody throws himself in and hopes for the best.
What bands and albums influenced you when recording this album?
I guess i`m always influenced by bands like The Soundtrack of our lives, Graveyard, Sacri Monti, Radio Moscow, Spidergawd or even Van Halen to name a few. I listen to a lot of different music and same goes with Thorsten and Philipp. Raised on bands like Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Tangerine Dream, Rush and so many more 70's greats i went through a lot of Grunge and Metal genres in my youth. So I get a lot of influences all the time while I'm listening to music.
The most important thing for me is to go the full musical journey wherever it brings me. One thing I like to mention though is that we always record our songs live together in a room. Only the vocals come afterwards. That's a thing I don't wanna miss anymore. We definitely went through the rollercoaster while recording but for us it's the only proper way to record an album. So obviously there will always be bigger or smaller flaws on our records.
What formats is the album being released on?
This time only on Vinyl & digital we don't sell many CD`s nowadays so we've decided to not make a CD version this time. Maybe in the future we will do a small run of CD`s.
What formats is the album being released on?
This time only on Vinyl & digital we don't sell many CD`s nowadays so we've decided to not make a CD version this time. Maybe in the future we will do a small run of CD`s.
You`re releasing the album by yourself. Is that a hard thing to do in today's musical scene?
I released the majority of records of my prior bands with labels and had some good and some bad experiences. We just naturally thought it would be cool to just do it yourself, because I know all the structures and I know a lot of people in the scene. I mean sure it would be more beneficial to have a label pushing your name and maybe through that getting some more recognition and opening slots at bigger festivals like Freak Valley Festival or Stoned from the underground etc because I sincerely hate telling and bothering people with phrases like "We are the coolest band you have to book us on your festival or show“
I released the majority of records of my prior bands with labels and had some good and some bad experiences. We just naturally thought it would be cool to just do it yourself, because I know all the structures and I know a lot of people in the scene. I mean sure it would be more beneficial to have a label pushing your name and maybe through that getting some more recognition and opening slots at bigger festivals like Freak Valley Festival or Stoned from the underground etc because I sincerely hate telling and bothering people with phrases like "We are the coolest band you have to book us on your festival or show“
I guess you know what I mean. For me it's just charming, fulfilling but also rewarding to do it the traditional way. That doesn't necessarily mean that we are never going to work with any label, we`ll see! We get a lot of love from the scene and some mail order distributors who are carrying our records in their catalogue and we are grateful for that.
Have you had any offers from the underground record labels to release your music, or do you prefer being fully DIY?
We recently had some indie labels getting in touch with us and I don`t wanna rule out working with labels in the future, we are just not necessarily seeking for any label. If the time is right it will happen, if not that's good too. I like the freedom of doing whatever we want and how we want. I mean we don't have Spotify, never did any proper band photos and generally we are pretty low key without any fancy band promo stuff on social media.
I just love writing and playing music and the creativity of putting the concept for an album cycle together, that's the fun stuff. Being constantly pressured to create content for social media and over posting the whole time it's not for me! I rather use the time playing guitar and writing new music.
What is the creative process or setup within the band? Do you write the music together or do certain people within the band do that?
I write almost all the music. Usually I bring half a song into the rehearsal and we are jamming on it, recording the jam and I will rework it for the next rehearsal. Sometimes I have particular drum beats for bass parts already in mind so I show them my feel of the groove but after that Philipp and Thorsten mostly write their own drums and bass.
How did you get involved with music? Was it a particular group or artist that made you want to write and play your own music?
Funny, I recently talked to an old friend (who now lives in the UK) about when we started because I'm pretty sure I saw my first real guitar at his place. Back then we were skateboarding a lot together and obviously skateboarding always goes hand in hand with a nice soundtrack. He and his older brother got me into playing music, but I had to start on bass because they needed one for their band.
What is the creative process or setup within the band? Do you write the music together or do certain people within the band do that?
I write almost all the music. Usually I bring half a song into the rehearsal and we are jamming on it, recording the jam and I will rework it for the next rehearsal. Sometimes I have particular drum beats for bass parts already in mind so I show them my feel of the groove but after that Philipp and Thorsten mostly write their own drums and bass.
How did you get involved with music? Was it a particular group or artist that made you want to write and play your own music?
Funny, I recently talked to an old friend (who now lives in the UK) about when we started because I'm pretty sure I saw my first real guitar at his place. Back then we were skateboarding a lot together and obviously skateboarding always goes hand in hand with a nice soundtrack. He and his older brother got me into playing music, but I had to start on bass because they needed one for their band.
So I got a bass to my 15th birthday, but in my heart I already knew I wanna play guitar so badly. Early influences to pick up the guitar I would say Iron Maiden, Metallica, Soundgarden, Alice in chains, Faith no more but what really pulled the trigger was Nirvana to be honest. I still love `em to this day, and they aged pretty well in my eyes with songwriting totally out of the box unusual chord structures and a high rasp voice I would sacrifice a lot for.
Who designed the excellent album cover. Really brings to light what the whole album is about.
The artwork is designed by Antoine Defarges (France) he works under the name Headbang Design, I was digging through Instagram and stumbled upon him. I showed him my ideas of the concept and he was down. He did a lot of hand drawing and I love the outcome. I mean the thematic is often used, maybe overused but I love 70`s & 80's sci-fi and fantasy stuff from books, comics, movies to all that role play games stuff.
Can you advise if you played or currently playing in other bands so folks can check your other musical projects.
Like i mentioned before prior to ZOAHR I used to play in an instrumental Post Rock/Psychedelic band called COLARIS. We`ve released 2. Full length albums a split LP with Thorsten's old band Ampersphere and 2. EP`s. We toured a lot back then until 2017. You can find everything on YouTube or colaris.bandcamp.com.
What is the current state of the German Rock/Metal scene? Do you perform gigs on a regular basis and do you have a local scene that you are actively involved with?
The scene over here in Germany is pretty in bloom. I can't keep up with all the new bands though. Here in our area it's calmed down a lot, venues closed, bands split up but that's just normal, with getting older priorities change. We used to organize shows for bands, but with all the day to day work and the band stuff I don't have the extra time to set up any shows at the moment.
Will you be performing any gigs to promote this album locally or further afield?
We already played a couple of shows in January and we have some more coming up in March and April. Mostly Germany but the Netherlands and Belgium too. The booking part though was kinda depressing. I never wrote so many emails without not even getting an answer before. I struggle to get 2-3 dates together on the proper route sometimes. I guess this goes back to not having a label, booking agency or fancy social media presence (sorry but i don't wanna fall into the rabbit hole of being a content creating social media clown, just to not get lost in meta algorithms!) But hey we are looking for shows, if you want us to play your bar, club or living room feel free to drop us a mail.
Before you go, do you have any words of wisdom for your new and potential fans out there.
Go to local shows and listen to smaller underground bands, always try to buy straight from the bands to make sure they get your money. Get involved in the music scene, set up shows, go to festivals, meet new people, it's never too late to learn an instrument, support your kids, stay off your TV and social media for some periods (Pretty absorbing and full of doom scrolling.) It's your life to do what ever makes you happy and a better human being. And last but not least thanks to everybody for reading and you Steve for doing this interview with us. Much love.
The artwork is designed by Antoine Defarges (France) he works under the name Headbang Design, I was digging through Instagram and stumbled upon him. I showed him my ideas of the concept and he was down. He did a lot of hand drawing and I love the outcome. I mean the thematic is often used, maybe overused but I love 70`s & 80's sci-fi and fantasy stuff from books, comics, movies to all that role play games stuff.
Can you advise if you played or currently playing in other bands so folks can check your other musical projects.
Like i mentioned before prior to ZOAHR I used to play in an instrumental Post Rock/Psychedelic band called COLARIS. We`ve released 2. Full length albums a split LP with Thorsten's old band Ampersphere and 2. EP`s. We toured a lot back then until 2017. You can find everything on YouTube or colaris.bandcamp.com.
What is the current state of the German Rock/Metal scene? Do you perform gigs on a regular basis and do you have a local scene that you are actively involved with?
The scene over here in Germany is pretty in bloom. I can't keep up with all the new bands though. Here in our area it's calmed down a lot, venues closed, bands split up but that's just normal, with getting older priorities change. We used to organize shows for bands, but with all the day to day work and the band stuff I don't have the extra time to set up any shows at the moment.
Will you be performing any gigs to promote this album locally or further afield?
We already played a couple of shows in January and we have some more coming up in March and April. Mostly Germany but the Netherlands and Belgium too. The booking part though was kinda depressing. I never wrote so many emails without not even getting an answer before. I struggle to get 2-3 dates together on the proper route sometimes. I guess this goes back to not having a label, booking agency or fancy social media presence (sorry but i don't wanna fall into the rabbit hole of being a content creating social media clown, just to not get lost in meta algorithms!) But hey we are looking for shows, if you want us to play your bar, club or living room feel free to drop us a mail.
Before you go, do you have any words of wisdom for your new and potential fans out there.
Go to local shows and listen to smaller underground bands, always try to buy straight from the bands to make sure they get your money. Get involved in the music scene, set up shows, go to festivals, meet new people, it's never too late to learn an instrument, support your kids, stay off your TV and social media for some periods (Pretty absorbing and full of doom scrolling.) It's your life to do what ever makes you happy and a better human being. And last but not least thanks to everybody for reading and you Steve for doing this interview with us. Much love.
Words by Steve Howe and ZOAHR
